U.S. Chamber backs Tisei

BILLERICA -- A rematch between Democratic U.S. Rep. John Tierney and Republican challenger Richard Tisei would give voters one of the clearest-cut contrasts on business issues out of any race in the country, in the eyes of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Touring the medical-device

company Belmont Instrument Corp. with Tisei Tuesday morning, chamber Senior Vice President Rob Engstrom called Tisei a friend of business. Later in the day, he delivered the chamber's formal endorsement for Tisei, praising the candidate's job-creation record at a Lynn press conference.

"The current congressman is hostile to our membership," Engstrom told The Sun in Billerica.

Chamber of Commerce supports the Ryan Budget that ends Medicare as we know it, opposes raising the minimum wage, and believes shipping American jobs overseas is just fine," Tierney spokeswoman Lauren Soltani said in a statement.

"Mr. Tisei's acceptance of the U.S. Chamber's endorsement and their hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign ads should confirm to 6th District voters that he'll be a rubber stamp for Speaker Boehner's radical economic agenda that consistently puts the interests of big corporations and Wall Street ahead of middle-class workers and families."

In their tour of Belmont Instrument Corp.'s Cook Street offices, Tisei and Engstrom heard from company President George Herzlinger about the challenges presented by government regulations.

Belmont was launched in 1980 with no outside money, a strategy that Herzlinger said he "wouldn't recommend to anybody."

Tisei asked Herzlinger if he thought he'd be able to start Belmont in today's business environment, which the candidate has critiqued as being hostile to entrepreneurs and small-business owners.

"I wouldn't be able to do it the same way," Herzlinger said. "I can't do it self-financed. There's too many regulations. Even the FDA has changed."